GM’s Bob Lutz Takes Jalopnik to School

It was age before beauty at Monticello Motor Club in New York, where 77-year-old Bob Lutz took Jalopnik’s Wes Siler to school in a Cadillac CTS-V.

A few weeks ago, GM’s vice chairman and chief rabble-rouser challenged anyone, in any car, to a race so GM could show how good the 556-horsepower supercharged super Caddy is. Jalopnik was the first to take the bait, offering Wes as a sacrificial lamb an enthusiastic challenger. We give Wes props for the effort – he spent a lot of time at the track to prepare and he rolled up to today’s throwdown in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X MR.

It wasn’t enough. Maximum Bob (that’s him strapping on the helmet) circled the 3.5-mile course in 2:56:321. And Wes? He clocked in at 3:08:126.

By the end of the day, the CTS-V had taken six of the top seven spots, with a BMW M3 sneaking into fourth. Lutz placed seventh out of the 12 drivers, with GM engineers in a CTS-V placing one, two, three. Wes finished ninth.

For the record, we wanted to put a C-note on Bob but Jalopnik editor Ray Wert wouldn’t take our bet.

UPDATE: 3:15 p.m. Eastern Friday, Oct. 30: Now with video, after the jump.

Photos: General Motors

Like sheep before the slaughter, the challengers line up before the race. Jalopnik’s Wes Siler is second from the left. That’s Bob Lutz in the red shirt in front of the red Caddy.

Bob Lutz, pushing the Caddy hard. His other car is a Corvette. His other other car is a fighter jet. Seriously.

Bob Lutz gloats discusses the Cadillac’s merits with journalists after the challenge.

The results. Heinricy, Link and Redman are GM engineers who worked on the CTS-V. Baruth writes for The Truth About Cars and Ulrich is a freelancer who’s done work for The New York Times. You already know who Lutz and Siler are. The rest of the guys are privateers.

Slick PR vid from GM, but you get brief in-car footage of Siler pushing the Evo through some turns: